More Than Rubble
by Frost on Maples
Summary: After the events in Seville, Coulson and his team are called back to London to assist UNIT with a problem


**More Than Rubble**

Author: Frost on Maples

Author's Notes: Agents of SHIELD and Dr. Who are not mine. I've only lovingly borrowed them in a good cause.

This was written for the Beta Branch Secret Santa fic exchange, for Zoe. This was produced through Christmas insanity, ice storms, and blackouts!

Many thanks for the encouragement and editing skills of the kind folks at the Beta Branch - this was a tough one, and I couldn't have pulled this off without them!

**Seville, Spain**

"There's been a change of plans," Coulson announced as his team boarded the Bus. "Agent May, I need you to lay in a course back to London." She nodded silently and headed to the cockpit.

"Are we going back to sift through rubble?" Fitz groaned. Simmons jabbed an elbow into his ribs as Sky groaned and Ward raised his eyebrows.

"The British Prime Minister requested that SHIELD provide extra assistance to UNIT for a problem they're having in London," Coulson said coolly. "It seems like the Asgardians left more than rubble behind after all."

"UNIT?" Ward frowned. "They're the United Nations darlings. If they're involved, we're supposed to stay clear. They're too public for us to work with effectively."

"Things have changed since New York," Coulson said. "We're no longer a shadow agency. People may not know a lot about us, but we are known. SHIELD's publicity department has decided that it would be a positive thing for us to be seen cooperating with an organization like UNIT."

"And if the public mistakes us as part of UNIT, and associates us with UNIT activities, it helps us hide in plain sight," Sky guessed shrewdly. "The hacker group Reflection did something like that with Rising Tide two years ago. We teamed up with them on something, and forever after people thought whatever Reflection did had something to do with Rising Tide, making us more visible and credible and making them more anonymous."

"Something like that," Coulson nodded approvingly. "UNIT generally tends to be more European based, but every little bit helps."

"So, no rubble?" Fitz asked optimistically.

"I'm sure there's still lots if you want to continue the scanning," Simmons said with a smirk.

"Strap in, everyone," May's voice announced over the speakers. "Wheels up in five."

**UNIT offices, London division, England**

"We've had three days to get the situation under control, and the creature is still running loose. And now the Prime Minister has insisted on calling in SHIELD." Kate Stewart, head of UNIT's scientific research branch, glowered at the faces around the conference table. "This is not acceptable."

Captain Erisa Magambo calmly stared back, unruffled. "I can understand the minister's reaction. He wants this dealt with as quickly as possible, before any more lives are lost." She shrugged in resignation. "SHIELD has had direct dealings with both Asgardians and their technology before. They're the closest we have to experts on the matter."

"We have handled alien invasions, monsters in the streets, dimensional rifts: we're more than capable of handling something like this," Stewart growled. She glared at the man next to Captain Magambo. "Mr. Taylor, is there any way to send the damn thing back to where it came from?"

"We need more time," Malcolm Taylor replied, squirming uneasily. Computers and data were so much easier to deal with than this. "There's been no time to analyze the energies that brought this...thing here, along with all the other Asgardians and elves and whatnot. It's not like the rift we closed a couple of years ago. We should be able to figure it out, but we need more time."

"We don't have time. A SHIELD team has already been dispatched. They'll be here in a few hours." Stewart sighed in resignation as she surveyed the discouraged faces around her. "All right. Keep working on it: there's a solution, we just need to find it." She waved her hand in a shooing gesture. "Dismissed. I want updates every hour." As people scurried away in relief, she called out, "Dr. Shaw, a minute, please."

She gathered up her papers into her briefcase to give herself a minute to think before turning to the woman waiting for her. For all that she was almost seventy, Dr. Liz Shaw was still elegant and refined, with a glint in her eye that said she didn't suffer fools gladly. A long-time UNIT veteran, she had vast experiences with the oddities UNIT was required to handle.

Stewart dredged up a smile. "Thank-you for coming in. I realize you only just started your retirement, and that this is totally different than running a moon base, but we desperately need someone with your… expertise."

Dr. Liz Shaw smiled resignedly. "I've come to expect disasters when I schedule personal time: this is nothing compared to when I tried to go to Bermuda. Why should my retirement be any different?"

Stewart was intrigued, but refused the distraction. She lowered her voice. "Any chance of… help coming?"

Shaw ran a hand through her gray-streaked blond hair. "You know it doesn't work that way. I have no idea if the advisor is going to show up or not. I haven't seen him in over thirty years. Your guess is as good as mine."

Stewart sighed. "I know, I was just hoping… I know this is boring for someone with your experience, but I need you to keep scanning for anything to do with the Doctor. Everything else needs to be devoted to finding and containing this creature." She glared at the older woman. "And no, I am not taking you out into the field. That is final."

"Yes, sir," Shaw sighed as they left the conference room.

Stewart frowned as she scanned the almost empty hallway. Normally, her assistant accompanied her to meetings such as this and waited in the hallway until classified matters were finished, but this meeting had started before Ms. Wells had arrived for the day.

"Where's Ms. Wells?" Stewart asked, looking around.

A red-haired woman stepped forward from where she had been waiting beside the door. "Ms. Wells broke her leg and will be off for at least three weeks. The temp pool sent me up to fill in for her." She smiled and stepped forward holding her hand out to shake, ignoring Stewart's frown. "I'm Donna Noble." She didn't mention that she had been the one to pull the short straw for the job, though she suspected that it had been somehow fixed since she hadn't made herself popular in the three days since she had started working for UNIT.

Stewart briskly shook her hand and started walking, trailing both Shaw and Noble behind her. "Welcome, Ms. Noble. I'm sorry I don't have much time to show you what I need, but follow me and you can start to figure things out. Dr. Shaw, please keep me apprised of your findings."

"Of course," Shaw replied, turning down another corridor to her lab.

Donna followed Stewart the rest of the way to her office. "It's too bad that you've had to start at a time like this," Stewart said, gesturing to the piles on the desk. "Normally, Ms. Wells would show you around and explain how she likes her office to run. Unfortunately, she's not here: Asgardians had to come crashing into London with their war and creatures despite her broken leg, and all of that generates paperwork." She grimaced at the depth of the paper. "This all needs to be categorized and entered into my private server, and all electronic data that has been sent since Friday needs to be both backed up on my private server and printed and filed for the classified archives." She checked her watch. "I have another meeting to run off to. I'll leave you to this. If you need me, my cell number is beside the phone." With that, she was off again, leaving Donna grimacing at the mountain of paper.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"The orders only say to return to London and check in with Kate Stewart, the head of UNIT's science research branch." Coulson was more inscrutable than usual. "Apparently, UNIT needs assistance with something more than just rubble cleanup. We'll be briefed by Stewart personally when we land."

"Nothing more?" Ward questioned. "I've never worked with UNIT before, but I've heard things about them." He paced as he glared at Coulson. "Going in blind to deal with more Asgardian items isn't a good idea." May shot him a warning look as he passed her. He stopped pacing, realizing that he was clenching his fists. "Sorry sir. The idea of dealing with more Asgardian things right now isn't very appealing."

"There are some brilliant people working for UNIT," Simmons chirped. "There's a guy who published some groundbreaking theoretical work a couple of years ago on dimensional rifts…"

"Malcolm Taylor." Fitz interjected.

"Right. His work is very different than Dr. Foster's on Einstein-Rosen bridges. Fascinating work-"

"Totally unconfirmed. Relies too much on actually being able to build a flux capacitor-" Fitz interrupted with an impatient wave.

"He had schematics for one in the most recent article he published, credited to a Dr. Brown-" Simmons glared.

"Working with UNIT can be…unusual." May interrupted the dimensional rift science debate to bring things back on track. "I was involved in an operation years ago on a site after they had one of their dust-ups. A Captain Magambo was in charge - she was young but very efficient. We never did find out what destroyed that underground bunker near Glasgow, but it was definitely one hell of a fight." Her face became even more inscrutable. "At the time, all I could find out about her and her squad was that they were based out of Cardiff."

Fitz and Simmons both shuddered when they heard "Cardiff". Sky, seeing their reaction, asked, "What's in Cardiff?"

"No one knows-" Fitz started.

"But very strange things happen around there," Simmons finished.

"We're going to London, not Cardiff," Coulson asserted. "Whether we like it or not, we'll have to wait until we're there to find out what's happening."

"I could try to find out," Sky volunteered. "I still have my hacking programs, even if you don't like me using them." She waggled her fingers. "Let me work my magic, see what I can find out for you. Forewarned is forearmed."

There was a moments silence as the team looked at one another. "There shouldn't be any harm in trying," Ward said, shrugging.

"They probably already don't like us because the Minister is forcing them to work with us, so it couldn't make things worse," Fitz added.

Coulson was silent for a minute, assessing the situation.

"Do it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Donna had finished all the filing, and was just finishing entering the data onto Stewart's private server when something unusual blipped in the system. Her eyes narrowed as she paused the last bit of her data entry to examine the glitch.

Something wasn't right. Patiently, she scrolled through the data, tracking the strangeness with her own uncanny speed that she had had since the summer she couldn't account for. There. Something had caused a gap in the logic of the firewall. With a disdainful sniff, she rewrote certain key lines of code, slamming the gap shut.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Argh!" Sky pounded her fist on the table. "I don't believe it!"

Fitz looked up from his recalibration of one of his gadgets. "Something wrong?"

"I just got thrown out of the system," Sky growled, tapping at her keyboard in vain.

"I thought everything was going smoothly?" Simmons asked, pausing her work on a handheld sensor unit.

"It was!" Sky protested as Coulson entered the lab.

"Problems?" he asked, walking over.

"Everything was going fine," she explained, frustration creasing her brow. "My program found a way through their firewall and was just starting to sort data when…something happened." Her hands waved vaguely as she tried to describe her frustration. "It was like someone saw my program, cut the paths it was following, and then rewrote that part of the firewall completely to shut it out. It's impossible, but that's what it looked like."

Fitz and Simmons looked at each other wide eyed. "UNIT weirdness isn't just in Cardiff..." Fitz started.

"…it's now on the internet," Simmons finished with a shudder.

Coulson sighed. "Guess we're going in blind after all."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hackers. This wasn't the first time she had thrown one out of a system. Punks with no jobs who thought they knew systems, she thought with a sneer. None of them could cut it with a real job: most of them, especially the ones she had dealt with in the last couple of years, were pitiful. With a disdainful sniff, Donna shut down the last traces of the invading program and turned back to real work. It was so nice to be able to work at her own pace without the strange looks and jealousy she'd been getting the last couple of years from slower coworkers. She checked her watch - she should be finished by lunchtime, and the food truck outside the building looked very promising.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Agent Coulson." Kate Stewart stepped forward to shake the agent's hand with a determinedly pleasant smile on her face.

"Director Stewart." Coulson wasn't fooled by the polite smile. "Pleasure to meet you. I wish it was under better circumstances."

"I'm sure we can make this work smoothly," Stewart said. "Let me be upfront and clarify the situation: you are here at the request of the Prime Minister of England. We have jurisdiction on this matter, and you are here to advise and assist. Director Fury has agreed to these terms. If there is a problem with these terms, I will discuss the matter further with Director Fury."

"Understood," Coulson nodded reassuringly. "There will be no problems."

"Thank-you." Stewart's expression warmed slightly. "We have experience with these types of situations, but the Prime Minister is concerned about the Asgardian factor, and wants to use all available resources to resolve things as soon as possible."

"I've heard about some of the situations UNIT has dealt with in the past," Coulson said soothingly. "I have nothing but confidence in your peoples' abilities."

Stewart turned to the woman beside her. "This is Captain Magambo. She is in charge of the military aspect of this operation." She gestured to the young man beside Magambo to step forward. "And this is one of our top physicists, Malcolm Taylor. He has had previous experience with dimensional rifts, and dealt with them admirably."

Coulson briefly introduced his team to the UNIT members. "Agent May is our pilot and weapons expert, Agent Ward is our expert on defence and tactics, Agent Fitz specializes in engineering, Agent Simmons specializes in life sciences, and Sky is our IT specialist."

"Captain, please escort everyone to the command centre, and brief Agents Coulson, May and Ward on our progress and strategy." Her phone chirped before she could continue: she checked it with a sigh of exasperation. "I have to take this: Mr. Taylor, please coordinate with Agents Fitz and Simmons to start tracking the creature and assess our options on returning it back to where it came from."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Simmons said, flushing pink as she shook Taylor's hand. "I loved your paper on interactions between bioenergy and its affect on tachyon sub-molecular particles." Fitz glowered at the blush on her face.

Malcolm Taylor smiled politely as he shook her hand. "Thank-you. I thought no one out there had read it."

He reached over to shake hands with Fitz. "Pleasure to meet you."

Fitz nodded curtly. "Let's get to work, shall we?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Captain Harkness, unless you're announcing that you're coming to help us, this is not a good time to call," Stewart said forbiddingly. She listened intently for a minute: her eyes widened as she blanched. She carefully stepped a few more paces away for privacy before hissing quietly into the phone, "What do you mean, I have to take care of her? Your people lost track of her - it's not my fault that she was hired for the office staff. You call favours from your sources and get it dealt with - I'm in the middle of a situation." She listened for a minute. "Fine. Ms. Noble should be safe for now: I left her in my office with a mountain of paperwork. It should keep her busy for the rest of the day. We'll deal with this as soon as I get back to the office."

She didn't see Coulson watching her. She didn't see Coulson quietly whisper to Sky, or see Sky pull out her laptop.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I have a blip over to the east - about two hundred metres," Fitz announced, marking the map everyone had gathered around.

"You must be getting some false readings, old chap," Malcolm Taylor responded. "My scanner says there's something due south, about three hundred metres." He marked a different spot on the map.

"I'm sure there's a very reasonable explanation for the differences." Simmons stepped between them, trying to head off the clash.

"My calculations are based on SHIELD's experience with Asgardian transportation technology," Fitz snarled.

"I based mine off the energy readings we gathered when the creatures came through. Which should be more accurate when you consider that the beast may not be from Asgard itself," Taylor said, hesitantly.

"I know how to interpret data like this: I've actually analyzed Asgardian data before," Fitz retorted, eyes narrowed.

"He may have a fresh perspective on this-" Simmons started.

"Give me a break, Simmons. You just want to keep him around so you can keep watching him all google-eyed," Fitz snapped at her. She stepped back, hurt on her face.

Taylor, offended, gritted his teeth and hissed, "Fitz, stop being a pig-headed idiot and pull your head out of your arse." He then turned to Simmons. "Gemma, thank-you, but I can defend myself."

"Leave her alone, she was trying to help." Fitz stepped up to stand nose-to-nose with the UNIT scientist.

Ward turned to Captain Magambo with a sigh. "Do we get involved with this?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head. "No way. That's Stewart's and Coulson's jobs. I keep my nose out of the science pissing matches and just get the job done."

He nodded appreciatively. "Sounds good." He picked up the map and turned away from the steadily escalating argument. "Where do you figure we should start?"

May looked at the map. "They both have valid reasons for their readings. Let's split the difference and start halfway between the two spots."

Magambo shrugged. "I don't have any better ideas." She frowned at the map. "If I remember correctly, this area is full of warehouses and buildings being converted into apartments. There may be a place where our beastie is holed up."

Ward frowned thoughtfully as he ran his finger over the map to stop at a spot. "This looks familiar," he said musingly. He called back over his shoulder to Coulson, "Sir, could you help me confirm something?"

"What is it, Ward?" Coulson asked as he walked over with Stewart and Sky. He looked at the spot Ward was pointing at and frowned.

"Is this the spot where Dr. Foster first encountered a dimensional rift?" Ward asked.

"It's the right general area," Coulson said thoughtfully. "I'll have to check the reports."

"I can do that," Sky said eagerly, patting her laptop. "If you let me, I can access the files from here." Coulson nodded his approval and she opened her laptop, setting it on the hood of a nearby car. "What file am I looking for?"

"Aether One," Coulson replied, watching her closely, as Ward, May and Magambo moved to look over her shoulder.

"You have a hacker on your team?" Stewart asked sceptically.

"She's more than a hacker for the team. Besides, are you saying you don't have any working for UNIT?" Coulson retorted. Stewart scowled back at him.

"Found it," Sky announced. "They give the GPS coordinates: I'll locate that on a map of London for you." There was a moment's silence.

"Well I'll be damned," Magambo finally said. She looked past Ward to May. "You were right."

"We know where to start," Stewart said determinedly. "Let's get going. Captain Magambo, take Agents Ward and May with you. The rest of us will follow."

"What about them?" Ward asked, nodding at Fitz, Simmons and Taylor as they argued.

"They're having fun," Coulson decided. "We'll let them catch up."

For the first time since SHIELD arrived, Kate Stewart smiled in agreement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I have one of my best squads already there," Captain Magambo informed Ward and May as they drove over with a detachment of UNIT troops. "They'll let us know if it's in there."

Their earpieces crackled as one of the advance scouts quietly radioed in, "It's in here. Ground level, north east corner of the open central area."

"How do you want to proceed?" May asked Magambo.

"I would prefer if we could do this quietly, without panicking the creature and sending it on a rampage," the captain said. "We have high concentration tranquillizer darts that we think should be able to penetrate the hide and sedate it. One long distance shot to take it down and then all we need to worry about is moving it."

"I have sniper experience," Ward offered. "I'm willing to volunteer to make the shot."

"Of course a SHIELD team would have a trained sniper." Magambo's expression was inscrutable as she examined his face. Reluctantly, she nodded. "Fine. Many of my people are fine shots, but none have hands on sniper experience." She nodded to Wilson, her second-in-command. "Agent Ward will make the shot when we get there. Make sure everyone knows and covers him."

"What's our back-up plan?" May asked.

"If the darts don't work, we'll try to herd it to the UNIT facility. I have troops clearing one of our storage vaults near the loading docks to hold it temporarily."

They stopped a block away from the abandoned factory. A UNIT squad was clustered at the corner that offered the best vantage point, watching. As the new additions joined them, the squad commander walked over to report to Magambo and Wilson. "The creature is still in there. As far as we can tell, it seems to be sleeping."

Ward examined the building. "I'll go up to the second floor to take the shot. That way I'll be out of the way if this doesn't work."

"I'll send in some people with more dart guns at ground level as backup," Magambo said. "According to the blueprints, there should be lots of pillers for concealment."

"Give me a laser sight and I'll paint the target for you," May said to Ward. "The lighting is lousy in there."

"I'll be fine," Ward growled at her. She glared back at him, matching his temper. "Fine. But you're running the risk of being called Mother Hen instead of the Cavalry."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ward grimaced. She was right. The lighting sucked: Too bright for a night scope, too dim in the shadows to see much more than murky shapes.

It wasn't until his eyes fully adjusted that he was able to see the creature as much more than a lump in the corner. A rumbling snore helped him figure out which part was the head, but he couldn't see details.

A green spot from a laser sight appeared on the creature, and he smiled. The Cavalry came through again. He carefully lined up his shot and fired. The dart slammed into the skin at the back of the bottom of the jaw, exactly as planned. Simmons had explained that, in theory, the skin should be thinner there and easily penetrated.

The creature jumped awake with a roar as the dart bounced off. It lunged to its feet, saw the UNIT troops, and tore out of the building as the soldiers shot their darts as well.

Ward sighed as he ran for the stairs to follow. Once again, a very large gap between theory and practice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"That's five pounds, love," the food truck man said as he handed Donna a pulled pork sandwich. As she started to hand him the money, he stared, blanching, then suddenly dove under the counter as there was a disturbance behind Donna.

She frowned, puzzled. "Are you all right?"

There was no reply beyond a garbled sound that might have been "Ohmygodohmygodwhatthehellisthatohmygod," but she wasn't sure. An extra loud sound behind her made her spin around to see a large, scaly creature bound across the park to crash through the fountain in front of the truck, followed by a team of people in UNIT uniforms, plus a black-clad asian woman and a jeans-clad man in a leather jacket. All were waving guns and gadgets at the creature, and shouting instructions to one another.

"The darts can't penetrate its skin!" a UNIT officer shouted.

"Bullets don't work either," another officer added.

Another squad of soldiers charged onto the scene, accompanied by Donna's new boss, a government agent (seriously, only a government agent dressed in a suit like that) and some civilians carrying equipment. A black woman in uniform who appeared to be in charge called out, "Jackson, Sheppard, get the net launcher ready!"

The chaos swirled around Donna as she stared, sandwich forgotten in her hand. Why was she suddenly looking around for a blue police box? They hadn't been in service for years, and she had a cell phone. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she reached for her phone, even as her eyes kept searching the street for the blue box...

The monster bounced and pranced around as the soldiers and agents shot at it. It crashed through the bench beside her, making her flinch as she stood her ground, watching it closely. The blue box faded from her mind and the sweat cooled on her forehead even as the beast turned to look at her. It extended its nose towards her, sniffing, and licked it lips as it eyed her.

"Oh, no you don't," she sputtered. "No way are you having a Noble nibble. Sod off, you homely bugger!" she shouted, throwing the only thing she had at hand: her sandwich.

The sandwich hit it on the nose, making it startle backwards. It licked its pork-smeared nose, and suddenly stared at the sandwich on the ground, head cocked. A careful sniff at the sandwich resulted in a happy growl: it delicately picked the sandwich up off the ground with its teeth and gulped it down. It licked its nose again and jigged on the spot, looking at her expectantly.

"Stand back, ma'am," the young government agent shouted as the UNIT team fired a weapon that dropped a weighted net over the creature. It cried out mournfully, gazing pleadingly at Donna as it tried to throw the net off while the men tried to pin it to the ground.

"Hey there!" Donna shouted. She was ignored as the creature thrashed about, dragging the net and its holders around. "Oi! Idiots with guns! Stop being stupid!" The beast was drawing breath as she shouted, so her voice suddenly echoed over the commotion. She drew a deep breath as she was suddenly the centre of attention. "Everyone calm down."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Who's that?" Coulson asked, turning to Stewart.

Kate Stewart paled. "Ms. Noble. She's my new office assistant. She's not supposed to be anywhere near here. She should still be in my office."

Sky shrugged. "Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure she'll be able to get away while Ward and May take care of things."

"You don't understand," Stewart said grimly. "It is a very bad thing for her to be here."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Donna stared at the monster and pointed at it. "You. Stop making a fuss." Shockingly, the monster stopped thrashing to stare at her. She glared at the soldiers. "Nobody move."

"You there," Donna said imperiously, pointing at Fitz and Simmons. "Help me get the rest of the sandwiches out of the food truck." She quickly ran to the side of the truck and threw the door open. "Give me all your sandwiches," she demanded.

The man on the floor scrambled to his feet and pushed past her. "You can have the whole thing," he shouted back at her as he ran away.

She saw trays of sandwiches waiting and shouted after him in outrage, "They're supposed to be made to order!" The response from the retreating form was a gesture better suited to traffic accidents: she huffed with disgust. "You'd think there'd never been strange things in London before," she sniffed. "Come on, help me carry these trays out," she said to Fitz and Simmons.

"What are we doing?" Simmons asked hesitantly.

"The poor thing is lost and hungry. I'm sure it'll be much more easily dealt with once it's had something to eat," Donna said with a shrug. "Bring the pot with the rest of the pork." Nervously, Fitz and Simmons followed Donna as she marched back to the monster. It's nose twitched, and it started to step forward, dragging the soldiers off their feet.

"SIT!" she hollered at it. Much to everyone's amazement, it obeyed, its haunches hitting the ground with a thud. It licked its lips, staring intently. She took a tray from Fitz and stepped forward to lay it on the ground in front of the creature. It immediately leaned forward to gobble down the sandwiches in three gulps. It then equally rapidly gobbled down the second tray of sandwiches and the pot full of pulled pork.

"So, what now?" Simmons asked nervously as Fitz quickly retreated to his gear beside Coulson.

"How am I supposed to know?" Donna asked. "At least it doesn't seem hungry any more." The creature, still watching Donna intently, suddenly laid down facing her, making what could only be considered a purring noise.

"It seems to like you," Simmons said quietly.

"It doesn't look like it's going to go anywhere," Donna said. "Take the net off," she called out to the UNIT soldiers.

Captain Magambo carefully walked over with Kate Stewart and Coulson. "That's not going to happen. We have to get it into containment."

"It would be much easier to do that if you don't have to haul it in a net," Donna retorted. "I mean look at it: maybe we could just lure it with food into wherever you want it, instead of fighting with it."

"Do you really think you can do that?" Stewart asked.

"You can't be seriously considering letting her try this-this insane idea," Magambo sputtered.

"If it means that there won't be any deaths or injuries, yes, I'll consider it," Stewart said.

"One minute, please?" Coulson asked Stewart, carefully drawing her aside. When they were out of earshot of the rest, he quietly asked, "What are you thinking? There are still measures we can take without major risks. Why this sudden trust in the ability of your office assistant with a alien creature?" His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Does this have something to do with the phone call you received?"

"I can only say that that there's more to Ms. Noble than would first seem apparent," Stewart said, carefully measuring her words. "Let's try things her way for now. We can always be more extreme later if things don't work."

"It's too risky," Coulson objected.

She glared at him. "UNIT doesn't shoot first. We're not spies, and we don't use assassins. We won't kill the beast unless it's absolutely necessary. I'm the one in charge: you are only here by request. I may not be allowed to send you on your way, but I can tell you to go sit on your plane."

"Fine," Coulson said, disapproving. "We'll go along with this - for now."

"How generous," she growled with a sarcastic smirk. "Ms. Simmons, please step back," she ordered. She turned to Magambo. "Take the net off."

Reluctantly, the captain turned to the team holding the net. "Take it off." She cast a dubious glance at Stewart, but said nothing.

The net was pulled off, and the creature stayed where it was, watching Donna adoringly. Hesitantly, she stepped forward and gingerly laid a hand on the huge nose. It crooned happily, resting its chin on the ground, eyes sliding shut. It tilted its head as she started to rub above the nose, and the crooning got louder. She jumped back as it rolled over onto its back, chin up, with a pleading sound in the croon as it looked at her. She stepped forward again, and this time started to scratch the upturned chin.

"I don't believe this," Stewart whispered. Magambo watched, mouth ajar in shock, as the creature's back leg started to twitch in time with the scratching.

Behind Stewart's back, Coulson nodded to Fitz, and gestured discretely towards Donna Noble. The young man's eyes widened, but he obediently turned his scanner to include Donna as he monitored the creature.

"Ms. Noble," Stewart said quietly. "Do you think you can get it to follow you? We have a temporary space for it in the office's underground storage vaults. I'll have someone waiting to help you."

"I think so," Donna said hesitantly, stopping the chin-scratching. Taking a deep breath, she said firmly to the creature, "Up." It ignored her, laying on the ground watching her through half-lidded eyes. "UP," she repeated loudly, giving it a slap on the nose. It jumped to its feet, shaking its head and stretching before watching her expectantly.

Stewart whispered quietly to Magambo, "Captain, could you take over for a minute? I need to arrange a few things." The captain nodded, understanding. Confident the situation was in hand, Stewart stepped away and pulled out her cell phone. "Dr. Shaw?" she asked quietly. "I have the perfect project for you…"

"Try to direct it around to the back of the building," Magambo said quietly. She spoke quietly into her earpiece to relay instructions to other members of the UNIT squad to clear the way and open certain doors.

"Okay," Donna said, nervously self-conscious under the captain's watch. "Come on," she said gently to the creature, starting walk backwards away from it.

The creature stood, head tilted, watching her with puzzlement. She didn't stop, but continued to slowly back away, calling to it. Suddenly, it bounded away to bounce around the park, kicking up its heels as it watched Donna. She stopped, horrified, as it snatched up the asian female agent gently by the leg and trotted over to her despite the agent's protests, looking very proud.

Melinda May turned to glare at Donna as she dangled. "If this thing doesn't put me down right now, I will kill it," she snarled, her menace undiminished despite the ridiculous sight of her hanging upside down from the creature's mouth.

"Oh my god," Donna gasped, hands over her mouth. "PUT HER DOWN." The creature promptly dropped May at Donna's feet with an adoring gaze. "Are you all right?" she asked the agent, kneeling beside her.

The glare May turned on Donna had been known to make grown men wet themselves. "Get that thing under control, or it won't see nightfall," she growled, gritting her teeth as she climbed to her feet.

Donna turned to the creature. Not knowing what else to say, she shouted, "BAD DOG! You don't go around grabbing people by the leg!" The proud look vanished as the creature looked ground and whined sadly. "FOLLOW ME," she bellowed, stomping along the route the troops had cleared for her. Head down, it followed, snuffling her hair and crooning for her attention.

The next obstacle was getting the creature into the building. It saw the open door and stopped, nervously eyeing the space. "It's okay, Fluffy, I'm right here and there's nothing to hurt you," Donna said, coaxingly.

"Fluffy?" An elegant older woman arrived, with two soldiers with trays of sandwiches (Donna suspected they had raided the commissary). She raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I suppose it does need a name, however unlikely. Ms. Noble, I thought these sandwiches might help you persuade your friend to come in. It's the best I could do on short notice: we'll get better food for it later."

"Thank-you," Donna said gratefully. "I imagine something this big will need more than a couple trays of sandwiches." She picked up a sandwich and turned back to Fluffy. "Here you go," she said, waving it under his nose. Gently, it reached out and took the sandwich from her hand, then proceeded to lick her hand (and arm) with a croon. "Argh!" she grimaced in disgust at the drool dripping off her sleeve. "This suit is dry clean only. Yuck!"

She looked up into the creature's expectant eyes and sighed. "All right. There are more sandwiches. Come on." She went through both trays before Fluffy was convinced to enter the storage vault. Unfortunately, she also discovered that he didn't want to accept sandwiches from anyone else but her. It felt like an eternity before she finally got him in the room and settled. It was a relief when he finally curled up by the back wall with a sigh.

"Well done, Ms. Noble." The quiet voice behind her made her jump. She spun to see that Stewart, Magambo, the government agent people and some UNIT staff had quietly crept up behind her while she had been busy. "May I have a word with you?" Stewart asked.

"Um, sure," she said, flustered. Stewart stepped away from the others and she followed, certain that she was in trouble.

"It seems like we need you to be something other than my office assistant," Stewart said with a wry smile. "As of this moment, you are being conscripted into UNIT as a special consultant on the matter of this…creature."

"Oh, no. You can't make me the beast wrangler," Donna protested. "You can't draft me. That's not legal. There's no way-"

"Try me." Stewart looked her in the eye grimly. Donna gulped. Before she could speak again, Stewart continued. "Besides, do you really think you could stand aside and do nothing if…I believe the name is Fluffy?…gets loose again and causes serious damage?"

Donna sighed and scowled. "Fine. I have no idea what I'm doing with it beyond feeding it sandwiches. I'll do it. But I have some stipulations." She looked Stewart in the eye. "You're not going to hurt him if he's locked up. No nasty tests. And I'm definitely NOT scooping up after him."

"I think we can agree to that," Stewart said with a nod. "Don't worry, you're going to have help." She led Donna back to the group, and beckoned over the older woman who had supplied the trays of sandwiches.

"Ms. Noble, I would like you to meet Dr. Shaw," Stewart said. "Dr. Shaw, Ms. Noble is the person the creature is attached to. I would like you to help her tend to it and do research on it until we can figure out a way to send it back home."

Dr. Shaw smiled reassuringly at Donna. "Hello. Nice to meet someone else who has met some of the stranger things UNIT has to offer. Let's see about getting your friend here settled."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Have you any conclusions from the data you collected?" Coulson asked Fitz and Simmons during the team debriefing.

"The creature isn't Asgardian, although the technology that brought it here is akin to a Einstein-Rosen bridge," Fitz started.

"What's more interesting is the biological frequencies involved with the creature and Ms. Noble," Simmons said.

"What do you mean?" Sky asked. "Auras like what 'psychics' see?"

Simmons thought for a minute before replying carefully. "All lifeforms and environments have a…frequency, for lack of a better term. In humans, it can cause the feeling of safety and happiness in a environment: a comfort zone, for lack of a better description. A clash in those frequencies can cause people to feel uneasy in situations."

Fitz spoke up. "The creature probably would have been very uncomfortable on this world, without any other harmonious life forms or environment near it. That's why it found the first rift Dr. Foster discovered, and stayed there: the harmonics were soothing to it."

"But what was really strange, " Simmons continued, "was Ms. Noble's readings. There's something…odd in her harmonics, that the creature liked."

"Do you mean she's an alien?" Ward asked, shocked.

"No, she definitely checks out as human, but there's something different about her," Simmons said. "I would say that she's been exposed to something that changed her in some subtle way, and the creature responded to it."

"Anything come of the trace you did on the call Stewart received just after we met her?" Coulson asked Sky.

The hacker frowned. "I managed to trace the call through five different satellites before it ended up in Cardiff. After that, it was like it…disappeared. It was weird."

"Cardiff again," Simmons said. Both she and Fitz shuddered.

"It's nothing really to do with us," Coulson decided after a moment's thought. "Stewart is intelligent, capable, and definitely knows something about it. UNIT will have to deal with it for now. Open a file with our observations, in case something comes of it in the future."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was getting late. Stewart was just finishing the last bit of paperwork when a soft sound made her look up sharply to see a gangly, angular form.

"You!" she snapped. "Just a bit late aren't you? We could have used your help a few days ago. Why don't you do back and fix things? Or even just help me with this damn paperwork?"

"I don't do paperwork," her visitor said.

She snorted. "Well, I know Dr. Shaw would love to consult with you on how to proceed now…"

"I have to keep away from her."

Kate Stewart stopped and sighed, looking into his face. She knew he didn't mean Dr. Shaw. "You've changed since she knew you. It should be safe."

"I can't take the chance. Jack explained what would happen if she remembers."

"Then why are you here?" Kate snapped. "It's late, I'm tired, and much as it's fascinating to hear you hint and tease information, I really just want to go home and have a cuppa. Spit it out!"

"UNIT has a base near Exeter. I would suggest housing the creature there." Stewart raised her eyebrows, mutely asking the question. "Send that bright young fellow, Malcolm Taylor, there too. He should be able to take advantage of things to send the poor beast home."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "The base there isn't ideal for housing the creature."

"It'll work. Something is going to happen there." He smiled at the horrified look on her face. "Actually, a few things." He turned to leave, paused at the door. "Don't worry. It's going to be fun." She sat in silence for a minute after he left, paperwork forgotten.

There was going to be an extradiminsional creature in Exeter. With Donna Noble. And the Doctor said it would be fun.

She checked the bottom drawer of her desk. Antacids: check. Three different types of headache medication: check. Bottle of scotch: check.

She was ready.


End file.
